New electronic assessment supports cancer patients

One of the latest initiatives to support patients with cancer is being rolled out across the Trust as part of the Macmillan Recovery Package.

All patients are given a holistic needs assessment that ensures that people’s physical, practical, emotional, spiritual and social needs are met in a timely and appropriate way. The Trust has signed up to a new electronic version of this, the Electronic Macmillan Holistic Needs Assessments (eHNA), which allows for the person affected by cancer to complete a questionnaire on a touch screen tablet. This information is then sent to the clinician through a secure website to begin the process of care and support planning.

Bianca Cipriano, Macmillan Recovery Package Project Manager, explained: “The roll out of the eHNA has begun and the information gathered from the assessment will be shared with patients, GPs and multidisciplinary teams.

“It involves selected pilot sites in upper gastrointestinal, breast, colorectal and head and neck. The first to conduct the Macmillan eHNA with patients were head and neck and they have received very positive feedback from patients.

“Staff are also finding that the assessment really helps address the concerns of the patient, focusing solely on what is important to the individual and how they can support them. Having the information available means that support from specialist areas such as speech and language therapy or dietitians can give much more precise advice.”